I am an incoming sophomore this fall in high school. This is an updated list of what my EC’s/Community Service will look like on my college apps. when I fill them out in 2.5 years. Please tell me if they’re good/make me stand out. My goals are: Stanford, UCBerkeley, and MIT. I will be taking around 9 AP’s the next 3 years.
EC’s
Student Body: Commisioner of Technology (12)
High School Tech Staff member - maintained entire school network(10, 11, 12) (letterman)
Repaired computers around campus, and helped with troubleshooting on a constant basis
Webmaster of school’s website (11, 12)
Teamed up with a friend and created anti-virus computer software that prevents viruses from affecting the AOL Instant Messenger program. (Our software received over 1 million downloads)
Created an open-source software over the summer of 2006 and entered it in Google’s Summer of code (<a href=“http://code.google.com/summerofcode.html[/url]”>http://code.google.com/summerofcode.html</a>) and won $4, 500
Started my own website design business, made over $20,000 and donated it to third world countries (10-12)
Wrote an article that was published in PC World
American Cancer Society (10,11, 12)
Think Global Club (10, 11, 12)
California Scholarship Federation (10, 11, 12 vice president)
Indo-Pak Club (10,11,12 Vice President)
Basketball (10 Freshman/Soph, 11 JV, 12 V) (letterman)
Volleyball (10 JV, 11 JV, 12 JV) (letterman)
Job: worked at Micro Center (11, 12)
I have professional computer certifications such as: A+, SCNP
Community Service
Volunteered year round at city hospital (10, 11 Vice president of Volunteer Program, 12 President of Volunteer Program)
Created complex websites for different organizations
Repaired/troubleshooted computers for various organizations
Volunteered at the American Cancer Society and its special events
Volunteered with Think Global - fundraised and donated to the international organization; United Nation Children’s Fund to combat child poverty.
<p>No...I'm just gonna help with the American Cancer Society by volunteering/helping them out. Nothing in the "hands on" lab field where they do all the technical testing and stuff.</p>
<p>your activities seem very strong and are good for any school. you show commitment to your love of your computers plus you add communtiy service that supplements your app. i think your fine</p>
<p>You asked specifically for my opinion or I wouldn't be responding. This list is waaaaay too hypothetical and DETAILED. The way you have things planned...knowing what you wish to pursue this coming soph year is more than fine. This? It's insane.</p>
<p>What you do is find some things you love and stick to them. Don't plan out all these positions you are in no way guaranteed.</p>
<p>That got a huge "What the ****?!!!" from me.</p>
<p>You seem to admire my cousin's stats. I don't know whether or not I'm phrasing that properly. The thing is, she did nothing like this. EVER. I don't know anybody who got into a top 10-15 school who did anything like this. It's freaking me out. </p>
<p>So are these ECs good? They are absolutely wonderful. Are they yours? Not yet. And will they be? It would shock me if you attained all these positions and accomplished these things. I don't know how else to say it.</p>
<p>Of course, if you did all of those things, you'd have outstanding ECs that could help you with the colleges that you're considering. It's nice to have high goals for yourself. Best wishes as you strive to achieve those goals.</p>
<p>This really confused me at first, because I thought, "Wait, this person is a sophomore, yet they already know they will letter in this and that; make $20,000 from a design website; have an article published; and get certifications in various programming languages? Quite confident."</p>
<p>I guess I'm reiterating what xhohosntwinkiesx said; these are great extracurriculars, but it would probably be best to get involved in the activities first before planning out where you will be in them.</p>
<p>Although it's good to have a plan, I recommend taking things a little slower.</p>
<p>I'm very sure i will be doing most if not all of them. I MIGHT not get letter in all, and I might not make $20,000 for the website company. But I know for sure I will get the computer certifications, and win the $4,500 for Google's Summer of code (because according to Google, anyone who completes a project by the end of the summer will win $4, 500).</p>
<p>1) Dude, first of all, you don't even know if Google will be continuing the summer of code program in the summer of 2006. Even if they do, will you be 18 years old as per the T.O.S?</p>
<p>2) Web design services abound on the internet nowadays. People who post and work on projects via eLance FULL TIME don't make much money (explaining the abundance of offshore designers...) To assume that you can pull in 20k as a part-time designer without a serious portfolio is over-ambitious to say the least.</p>
<p>I'm not trying to shoot you down. Find out what you love to do, pursue it, and discover opportunities in the process. Just don't hypothesize about specific, distant and unrealistic goals.</p>
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1) Dude, first of all, you don't even know if Google will be continuing the summer of code program in the summer of 2006. Even if they do, will you be 18 years old as per the T.O.S?
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<p>hmm yeah I guess I'll do this when I turn 18 then, not 2006. </p>
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2) Web design services abound on the internet nowadays. People who post and work on projects via eLance FULL TIME don't make much money (explaining the abundance of offshore designers...) To assume that you can pull in 20k as a part-time designer without a serious portfolio is over-ambitious to say the least.
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<p>First off, you don't know how easy it is to make money doing web design. My friend, who is 16 has made 25k already, starting 2 years ago. He earned $5,000 by just doing one site for our police department.
Yes, maybe 20k is a little too much, maybe i'll set it at 10k to start out.</p>
<p>yes i realize i was a little too anti-realistic when i wrote this. Sorry.</p>
<p>If you're asking if this would make you stand out, yes. But don't get your hopes up. You might be surprised that sophomore and junior years eat up more time for homework than 9th grade, and hopefully friends take up more time too. At the same time, do your best to do all of this, but it won't be worth it if you can't manage better than B's while doing it.</p>